life is simply better lived with dogs!

Our sweet Fiona turned ten years old this January. That tiny ball of fluff has grown up to be such an integral part of our lives! She is a quiet leader of our pack, setting the tone and watching over the other two clowns with amusement. She looks and acts like a young dog, despite her double digit age.

I decided to have the vet run some senior blood work at Fiona’s annual check up. Everything seemed in order, except her thyroid levels were low. The only sign of thyroid problems she might be showing was a slight weight gain. Typically she is around forty-eight pounds and she had gained almost ten pounds since her last visit. She also has recurrent ear infections and occasional urinary tract infections, which could be related.

It may not sound like much, but for a dog to have a twenty percent weight gain, with no change in diet or exercise, is actually a lot. Like humans, I am sure it is hard to keep weight off as a dog ages. However, since dogs cannot talk to tell us how they are feeling, we have to rely on any signs that things are changing, to read the internal picture.

After consulting with our vet Dr Smith at Parker Creek Veterinary Hospital, we decided to recheck Fiona’s blood work in a few months to see if there were any changes. In three months the values were the same low thyroid numbers and no new clinical signs.

One treatment option to raise the blood values, is to prescribe thyroid hormone medicine, which Fiona would likely be on for the rest of her life. I wanted to try another route first, however, which was to visit our local holistic vet, Dr T at Blue Sage Wellness. I am a strong proponent of natural remedies and have worked enthusiastically in the natural product market for years. Holistic wellness treatments are always my first choice over prescription drugs.

Our visit to Blue Sage was a very positive experience. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, like a massage therapy practice, with calming music and treatment rooms which look decidedly non clinical – no metal table, just a comfortable padded mat on the floor almost like a large dog bed.

After being thoroughly examined, Fiona was given some laser therapy for a stiff knee and acupuncture for her overall health. Dr T prescribed an herbal tincture to boost her immune system and a thyroid support herbal powder to add to her food every day. She also prescribed adding more real food into her diet and less chicken. The pack is happy because now they get real salmon added to their food a few times a week – lucky dogs!

We are to trying the remedies for a month and then rechecking the blood values to gauge the effect of our course of action. Dr T cautioned that despite our best intentions with the herbal remedies, that Fiona still may need thyroid hormones. I am of the mind that thyroid levels should be at optimum levels not “normal” so we’ll see what it takes to make that happen for our sweet girl.

We shall see how it goes! I will keep you posted on our health journey. If you have any experience with your dog and thyroid treatments, please share with me.

Our last visit to the vet with Lobo was a great success. He had a full exam, with blood taken, and he was only muzzled for a short while. This victory is the result of a long term plan, laid out since we adopted him over a year ago.

Our goal of course is for him to not need a muzzle at all at the vet’s office. This boy, however, has a lifetime of fears to overcome. As a rescue dog with an unknown past, the path to comfortable vet visits is paved with patience, understanding and compassion.

We do know one story when Lobo was being fostered at a doggy daycare center. Left alone at night, he tried to escape his pen and bloodied his paws and mouth in the process. He was discovered covered in blood and was taken to the vet on an emergency visit in a state of great anxiety and stress. We are not sure, but the mysterious scar under his chin may date from this sad event.

Lobo loves his vet, without a doubt. All of our dogs do. Dr Marsha Smith is about as sweet and compassionate and laid back as a vet can be. Her love and respect for the animals in her care is obvious; she has a gentle manner that puts dogs at ease. Yet Lobo will wag his tail and bare his teeth at the same time when she tries to examine him.

When we first took Lobo to her, he was merely accompanying our other two dogs for their checkups. He found a spot right by the door to the room and parked himself there, ready to bolt at the slightest crack of that door.

Before each visit to Dr Smith, we stop at Wendy’s for hamburgers for the pack. We want Lobo to associate a visit to the doctor’s with something positive and special. These dogs get Wendy’s hamburgers at no other time except vet visits.

On the second visit to the vet, Lobo snarled and bared his teeth when Dr Smith tried to examine him. We muzzled Lobo and tried to get a full exam to no avail. We could not get him to stay still, even in a headlock. We gave up after a short while, not wanting to stress him any further.

The next visit to the vet’s was for the girls and not for Lobo. Easy peasy.

The visit after that, was all for Lobo. He was really in need of a thorough exam. Dr Smith talked with us and the dogs for a while. Gave pets and bits of hamburger to all three dogs. And then my husband and I held Lobo firmly but gently while Dr Smith started the exam. He was, amazingly enough, fine with this. At first his heart rate sped up, but he calmed down once he realized that there was nothing to fear. We were careful to be calm ourselves, because dogs can read our emotions like a book.

Now the true challenge, taking a sample of blood. The vet and tech had tried that unsuccessfully on Lobo’s other attempt at a checkup, to take blood from his back leg so he wouldn’t see what was going on. This time we decided to go for the front leg to eliminate the unknown, muzzle on for a short while, and us holding him. It worked like a charm. The muzzle was off in no time and he was enjoying more hamburger bits with the girls!

We considered this vet visit a triumph. Next time we hope the muzzle is not necessary at all. Wish us luck! And please share any vet experiences of your own in the comments.

I love to bake. I’ve been baking for my family and friends for years. Making Christmas cookies at my house with my nieces is a beloved, time honored tradition. My chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies are produced in double batches to bring to family gatherings so everyone can bring some home after we eat a bunch for dessert.

It makes sense that I would bake cookies for my dogs – the furry family so dear to my heart – but I have not yet tried! Knowing that I have some eager taste testers, I am borrowing some cook books from a friend and I’ll report back next week!! I am very excited to give this a try. We are baking for ourselves but also for a fund raiser on October 24th for our friends at A Pathway to Hope. I think we need some trial batches to make sure they are really, really good. If you have any suggestions or a recipe to share, please let me know!

A week or so later….

Inspired by my love of baking and the woofuses’ love of treats, I decided to search for a good recipe that would work for Halloween. I found one at a great blog called “use real butter” – Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Treats. The simple ingredients are: whole wheat flour, eggs, pumpkin puree, and peanut butter. That’s it. Simply natural. For the recipe and directions, please visit the page on the use real butter blog – Jen tells it so well and her blog is a very interesting one well worth following.

I would suggest doubling the recipe, although it does make a lot, because every one you know with a dog will want some and then want some more. We made little “tombstones” for Halloween. These are cut out cookies and I had a hard time finding a small enough cookie cutter amongst my rather large collection. However some kind soul had given me a small tin of tea themed cookie cutters ages ago, and the tiny slice of toast (yes, there is a toast-shaped cookie cutter) worked perfectly as a tiny tombstone! Necessity is the mother of invention, eh?

Of our three dogs, Fiona is the pickiest eater. She is my litmus test for a good biscuit. This was her reaction. Do you see the intensity of her eyes? Secret is out right licking her chops. They are doing a down stay to earn their treats. Lobo thought they were mighty delicious as well.

We’re going to give dog treats out at Halloween to the dogs we know in the neighborhood – why not? Sounds like fun. We’ve put a dozen treats each in a snack size bag and added some Halloween stickers for spooky spirit. Let’s spread the ‘ruv around!

When we first met Lobo at an adoption event, there was a look of anxiety and confusion in his sweet eyes.

When we adopted Lobo, we were told he had separation anxiety. It was suggested to us that he go to doggie day care every day while we were at work. We started out this way and all was well. Yet something didn’t seem quite right.

We have two other dogs at home. They stay home all day while we are out at work. We knew that Lobo could do the same. So we started to leave him at home for the latter half of the day. We’d pick him up from doggie day care in the early afternoon. Drop him off at home with Fiona and Secret. And head back to work for another four hours.

I was nervous. Lobo seemed to have some aggression issues, which mostly manifested in barking but sometimes rough play.

The separation issues were not with us leaving him at home. The separation anxiety was simply about being left totally alone. When the other two dogs were with him, he was not alone at all. He had a pack of sisters.

Soon we were leaving Lobo home all day with the girls. There was no destruction, no accidents, no injuries. The only thing that happened was when we had a thunderstorm, Lobo moved the couch out from the wall to hide behind it. That fear too has receded with time and patience.

Dogs are pack animals. Huskies are more pack animals than some other breeds, in my experience. Once Lobo had the security of the pack and the comfort of a regular schedule to understand, he was just fine in the house all day while we were out.

Now our final challenge is that when Lobo came to us he was on prozac, a medicine used to treat depression and anxiety in both animals and in people. We were not sure what he was like before the meds, and one of our vets cautioned us to be wary of his “honey moon period” of being good, and not take him off the meds without seeing a behaviorist first.

Although I respect this opinion, Rob and I did not agree with it. We wanted him off the medicine and were certain he did not need it long term. We talked to our usual vet who suggested we bring Lobo’s dose down from 20 mg to 10 mg for a while and then wean him off over a period of two weeks with a pill every other day.

Lobo is now at ease and living a comfortable life with his two sisters.

We are currently in the midst of this process and giving him the lower dose, and all is going very well. Lobo is a little extra, what we call “barky bark”, where he barks at us for seemingly no reason. Yet it lasts for no more than a minute or so, we give him some affection, and he lies down at our feet. Other than that, we are seeing no ill effects.

I do feel that some dogs who are labeled as having separation anxiety, may profit by simply having another dog around with them. I know this doesn’t work in all cases but it may be a simple way to eliminate stress for some pets and their families. Adding another animal to the house may sound like a lot of work, but they keep each other company, tire each other out when they play and can bond like devoted family members. If your poor dog trembles when you leave the house, it may be worth trying!! Consider a foster situation where you have the option to adopt if all goes well – that’s how we wound up with three (amazing) dogs….

Our Lobo is a bit nervous at the vet. Being a rescue dog with a hazy past, we have a hard time separating fact from fiction with what we have been told about him. What we do know is that not long before we started to foster him, he was taken to the vet because he had injured himself trying to escape the room he was left in overnight alone. His mouth and paws were bloodied (it breaks my heart to think of it) and he had to be muzzled at the vet because he was in such an agitated state. This was before we met Lobo.

Our first visit to the vet with Lobo was just a meet and greet, not an exam. He glued himself to the exit door of the room. He even squeezed between Rob and the back of a tiny chair. He wasn’t aggressive but he wasn’t friendly.

The second visit was for a rabies shot for Lobo. The vet’s office insisted on an examination as well and our usual vet wasn’t in that day. The other vet was fearful because Lobo bared his teeth at her and she had us put a muzzle on him for the exam. I wasn’t happy with this but I guess I can’t blame her for being nervous. He’s a big boy and he can be a bit of a loud mouth.

Fiona smothers her doctor with enthusiastic kisses.

Truly Lobo is “a big mush,” as more than one person has told us about him. Our two girls Fiona and Secret love their vet excessively and we want Lobo to have the same experience. Rob and I have always felt that the vet-pet relationship is so very important because an animal must be comfortable with the doctor and the doctor’s office in order to be well-examined, cared for or diagnosed.

This weekend, Fiona and Secret were scheduled to see the vet for an exam and shots. We wanted Lobo to see how much they love their vet. To bring the experience up another positive, emotional notch, we picked up two Wendy’s hamburgers en route to the appointment. We gave them to the vet to share among the three dogs.

Lobo looks at the doctor adoringly – more hamburger please!

Lobo must have thought he was in heaven! This nice lady with a stethoscope was giving him hamburger and petting him. He looked at the doctor adoringly and ultimately threw himself across her foot as he lay on the floor.

Our hope is that when we go back in a few months for a checkup for Lobo, again with hamburgers in hand, that Lobo will associate the office and the vet herself, with a positive experience, and allow himself to be examined easily. The poor boy’s teeth are a mess from his days and nights left alone and trying to escape, so they will need to be seen to in the near future. All in good time.

We are going about this gradually to give Lobo the best chance for stress-free healthcare. I’ll keep you posted on our progress! This vet-apprehension is a new experience for us. If you have any comments or suggestions, I would really love to hear them!!

DOG PARENT'S CODE OF CONDUCT
To travel (near or far) with my pet(s), I promise the following:
1. My dog is well groomed and reasonably well behaved
2. My dog is up to date on all his or her shots
3. I carry sufficient water, food and treats for my dog to be comfortable when traveling
4. I carry doggie waste bags and clean up after my dog
5. I support dog friendly establishments
6. My dog is friendly and non aggressive to people and other dogs
7. Both my pets and myself are respectful of the location, employees, and fellow patrons, of the establishments we frequent.
8. I never leave my dog in my hotel room.
9. I never leave my dog in a hot car.
10. My dog is microchipped and/or has a collar with name tag and contact info to reach me in case my dog is lost.

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